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Ince - Scrap recent friendlies

Blackburn manager Paul Ince has joined growing calls to scrap the November international friendlies.

Last Updated: 22/11/08 1:04pm

Blackburn manager Paul Ince has joined growing calls for the November international friendlies to be scrapped.

His comments come after Manchester City boss Mark Hughes and Middlesbrough chief Gareth Southgate called for the matches to be scrapped because of the unnecessary disruption they cause Premier League sides.

Ince said this week's internationals had deprived Rovers of a chance to consolidate the squad ahead of Sunday's game at Tottenham, which will be screened live on Sky Sports 1.

Nonsense

He said: "It's ridiculous, we have enough injuries as it is. It's nonsense - Roque Santa Cruz went all the way to Oman and didn't even play.

"Andre Ooijer is 34 and played 90 minutes for Holland. When I spoke to him before he left he said he was only going to play 45.

"This is the problem, they have to have some understanding of our situation and the last thing we want is one of our senior players to be playing a friendly for 90 minutes.

"You can see why club managers get irate when people are not sensible.

"I do believe it should be scrapped. The timing of it is ridiculous considering the Christmas period is coming up.

"It's so demanding on the players, especially for a club like us who have not got a big squad and cannot rest players."

Robinson views

Meanwhile, Sunday's game sees Blackburn keeper Paul Robinson return to White Hart Lane for the first time since his summer switch from Tottenham.

The former England keeper left the club after falling out of favour with previous boss Juande Ramos, who has himself now been replaced by Harry Redknapp

Robinson said: "I had four years there and three-and-a-half of them were probably the happiest times of my football career so far.

"It was a difficult time towards the end, very difficult for me. I was not playing as well as I wanted to play, my confidence was a little bit low and that's the time you need the support and the strength of the people around you.

"You need the manager and the coaches to believe in you and I didn't get that.

"Confidence is the biggest part of the game for a goalkeeper. You stop coming for balls that you should come for, you start taking the safer option when you should be doing other things.

"Ramos' departure has worked out well for Tottenham, and me leaving at the time has worked out well for me. If I was still there at the beginning of this season with the run of results they had it could have been more detrimental for me."